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UNIDO to work with Korea International Cooperation Agency to transfer green technologies to Cambodia

VIENNA, 28 December 2010 – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), will work together to facilitate the transfer of environmentally sound technologies to Cambodia.

An agreement on this was signed in Vienna today by the Director of UNIDO’s Resource Mobilization and Quality Assurance Branch, Adrie De Groot, and the Minister Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to UNIDO, Dae-jong Yoo.

KOICA will provide UNIDO with USD 900,000 to establish a trust fund which will be used for the identification, assessment and prioritization of pollution “hot spots” and transfer of environmentally sound technologies (TEST) in the Cambodian section of the Mekong River.

This is the first agreement between UNIDO and KOICA.

The TEST project in Cambodia will be implemented by UNIDO in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, and the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia.

It is funded by the East Asia Climate Partnership established by the Government of the Republic of Korea in 2008 to enable developing countries in East Asia coping with both economic growth and climate change simultaneously. KOICA is the implementation agency for this partnership.

The two-year project will help improve the water quality of the Mekong River and reduce the negative impacts from industrial activities through the introduction of UNIDO’s integrated approach for the transfer of environmentally sound technology. This methodology increases the environmental performance of polluting enterprises.

The TEST approach integrates and combines traditional tools such as the Cleaner Production Assessment, the Environmental Management System, Environmental Management Accounting, Technology Transfer, and Corporate Social Responsibility, applied on the basis of a comprehensive diagnosis of enterprise needs.

In the course of the project, UNIDO will also recommend mitigation measures, including policy mechanisms and technical solutions. Low cost technical solutions will be implemented and the financial feasibility of more expensive technical solutions will be assessed. Lessons learned will be disseminated and the replication of the project in neighboring countries will be assessed.

The project will help enhance the knowledge and the capacity of the counterparts in Cambodia to allow them to take decisions on mitigation measures to reduce man-made pressure on the Mekong River. In addition to selected industries, entrepreneurs’ associations, labour unions and the media will be invited to participate in the training workshops.